Modular Home Expands to Meet Your Needs

The Portuguese design firm Appleton & Domingos recently designed the so-called Treehouse Riga, which is a modular home that can be easily adapted to the owner’s needs. The designs were created for the modular homebuilder Jular. Given that it’s a prefab home, there’s less construction waste as compared to traditional building methods, and expanding it to accommodate a growing family, for example, is a breeze.

The basic version of Treehouse Riga measures 474 sq ft (44 sq m) and features two bedrooms. It’s made of just two modules. Each module measures 236 sq ft (22 sq m) and they are joined together in an offset way, which creates exterior spaces that slightly are different from each other. Presumably, more modules can simply be attached to the home, to create additional spaces such as extra rooms, a studio, a second bathroom and so on.

The kitchen and living area are located in one of the modules, while the two bedrooms and the bathroom are house in the other. The two areas of the home are separated off by a sliding door, which is made of birch wood, to offer privacy when needed. In this way, one of the bedrooms can actually be completely opened up when the sliding wall is pulled away, so it can be used as a living room, sitting area or a home office, as well as a guest bedroom. The home also features copious amounts of glazing, which allow lots of natural light into the interior spaces.

The home has ventilated facades made of ThermoWood, which is a very durable thermally modified wood. These offer privacy, and cozy indoor/outdoor areas. For the walls they used Kerto micro-laminated veneer lumber, which makes a strong and stable structure. All the wood used has a PEFC (chain of custody) certification.

Given that this home is made primarily from wood, and that it doesn’t seem to require a concrete foundation, definitely makes it one of the more sustainable modular homes.